I am having a dinner with a Russian menu and I am having a hard time finding Russian wines. I understand the Georgian region produces quite a bit of wine but I have tried calling 10 different liquor stores in my area with no luck. The dinner is in 2 days. Any suggestions?

If I recall my history lessons, the Russians during the Crimean war loved (and probably still love) champagne & sparkling wines. While they preferred Champagne, they weren't fussy about where other sparklers came from, so long as it's bubbly. A chilled bottle of your favorite sparkler to go with the pate & caviar would be my suggestion.

A small shot of icecold Russian vodka between the soup and main courses won't be out of place. Good time for a toast, something anti-Stalin perhaps. Horrible man.

Kc, since Jaime does not identify his location, I hesitate to make recommendations--but then, almost nobody outside of NY is likely to find Frank's Rkatsiteli, which if one can, it will likely be as good as the Gruner-Veltliner for the dinner. I believe Rkatsiteli is a Georgian grape.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions! My location is Wisconsin and you are right, I could not find Frank's Rkatsiteli in time for the dinner. But I did order some on line to try just for ourselves.

Instead of the Austrian Gruner-Veltliner I chose a Riesling from Slovakia (Sturovo Region, Muzla)

I chose 2 different wines to try with dinner to experiment with. One is a Rose Valley Merlot from Bulgaria and the other is a Pinot Noir from Romania.

And of course Cristal vodka for a toast [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

If the theme of the dinner is dictators, and especially if Stalin (and Soviet rule) is the focus, it would be (thematically) kind of appropriate to serve the food with a bold, brick-red, no-nonsense wine.

As for the food, I'm surprised no 'taters are being served (pardon the pun).